My 3 rules to dev team culture

Culture / environment is really hard to create, but it’s the number 1 thing that impacts whether or not someone enjoys their job. How do you create culture? Have values and hire and fire by them.

Devs are part of the product team, not code monkeys. PM teams get data & requirements 80% of the way there, but implementation needs a voice in product creation and creates a better product if they have empathy for the user. (see awesome StartupCTO.io interview with Jud Valeski)

Devs get long periods of uninterrupted concentration time. Things like remote working, private offices, teaching and holding the rest of company accountable to what is and isn’t urgent, how we should communicate with each other (responding to email over a day or two is perfectly acceptable and suggested, responding to an email immediately is discouraged, and slack mentions are not acceptable). See Joel Spolsky’s advice.

Learning / teaching with one another is normal practice and is not offensive. Working with smart people makes each person stay on their game professionally and each dev is a constant learner and enjoys learning new things all the time. We get joy out of teaching one another and learning from each other. (Again, see Jud’s episode about always hiring people smarter than you.)